WOMEN in BUSINESS - April/May 2009 - (Page 24) Fe at u r e finding WRIT TEN bY tauNa DOWLING Balance Patricia Martin ties together work and family to create her definition of success. Her success, Martin says, comes with a responsibility to help others. “I think more senior women have an obligation to reach back and pull forward. I think anyone who is further along in their career and has that experience has that obligation.” It has been a whirlwind 24 hours for Patricia Martin. The dynamic executive in charge of Global Diversity for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company just got back to Indianapolis on a midnight flight from New York. She woke up, got her two children off to school, checked in at work, carved out time for a 30-minute interview for Women in Business, and right after hanging up, will be going to her 8-year-old daughter’s parent-teacher conference. She is also the Girl Scout cookie Mom, using her accounting skills to keep track of all the cookie sales. Can you say multitasker? Martin reflects on her hectic schedule and says she knows it is a struggle that many women encounter—the balance between career and family. “Really, I think of it more as a mentality,” Martin says. “I don’t separate my work from my life. It’s really sort of a choice.” For Martin, it was the right choice. In her position as vice president of Global Diversity, she is using her skills from a variety of positions she has held at Eli Lilly to shift the way diversity is defined and used in the business model. “The business case for diversity has always been there,” Martin says. “You have the opportunity to capture the innovation and the creativity and the experiences of all people, and you’re going to end up with a better answer.” That philosophy has served Eli Lilly well as it strives to produce medications and treatments for people across all spectrums of life. It is a concept Martin believes is accessible to a wide range of businesses. “We have translated ‘diversity’ into ‘difference,’ meaning we need to understand the important differences of our patients, whether that be genetic or biologic or cultural, or environmental—whatever it is that enters into their healthcare. … Almost any business can do this if they step back and [ask], ‘How do I apply the difference in my workforce to the difference in my marketplace?’” 24 W o M E N I N b uS I N E S S a p r / M ay 2 0 0 9
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